Professionals
In 2005, the health care industry employed more than 3 million professionals (physicians, dentists, registered nurses, and therapists), which was more than any other industry except education. The management control implications of professionals are the same as those discussed in the preceding section. Their primary loyalty is to the profession, rather than to the organization. Departmental managers typically are professionals whose management function is only part time; the chief of surgery. Historically, physicians have tended to give relatively little emphasis to cost control. In particular, there has been an impression that they prescribe more than the optimum number of tests, partly because of the danger of malpractice suits if they don’t detect all the patient’s symptoms.